The Two Most Borrowed Words - Coffee and Tea

 In 2014, sitting at our kitchen table on morning, after telling her about Russian kofe and Thai gafe and Korean koepi, my mom asked me if coffee was the most borrowed word in the world. and I didn’t have an answer for her then.

After going over dozens of widely borrowed words, it’s hard to say for certain but coffee is really, really high on the list for having the most cognates. Really, the only competition for the number one spot is tea.

And the winner kind of depends on how granular you want to get.

Let’s start with coffee. The word comes to English from Dutch koffie, from Italian caffè, from Turkish kahve from an Arabic qahwa which has a nice and highly disputed etymology. It might come from one word meaning ‘wine’ another meaning ‘dark’ or from the Kaffa region of Ethiopia where the word for coffee is bun(n). We’ll come back to that later.

There are a dizzying number of coffee-cognates in languages around the world. In the first group of 140 languages I looked at, there was a cognate for coffee in all of them but two - Tigrinya and Amharic. In the second group of languages I looked at, 73 had cognates, and two did not - Afar and Cree. 

Interestingly, the indigenous North American languages that I looked at, tended to have a strong resistance to loan words but did have cognates for coffee, either borrowed from English or Spanish. Generally speaking this would be one of the very few widespread cognates these languages would have.

	coffee	radio	chocolate
Choctaw	kafi	nan ola
Cherokee	kahwi	gawonisgi, kanogisdi	wodigekalitsetsi, kayeyo tuya, tsagalidi
Muskogee	kafe	eshayēckv, opunvkv-svwahēcetv
Navajo	gohwééh ahwééh	níłchʼi bee haneʼé	gohwééh hashtłʼishí
Ojibwe	gaapii	gaagiigido-makak	miskwaaboo

Words for coffee across languages tend to fall into two broad categories 

1. words derived from Italian caffè (languages of West and Southern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Oceania/the Pacific Islands)
2. words derived from Turkish kahve or Arabic qahwa (East Slavic languages, Serbo-Croatian, languages of the Middle East, Turkey, the Caucasus and some languages of East Africa and Central Asia)

And just taking a glance at some other lists and websites, it’s clear that there is a cognate for coffee in a relatively huge number of languages.

Really the only wander-word that can even compare to the number of cognates there are with coffee has got to be tea.

Tea as a drink has a long, long history in the world. While the plant was cultivated in several different places in Asia, it really took off in China and from there, it was traded to the rest of the world and the name was normally borrowed.

The English word ‘tea’ comes from the Dutch word ‘thee.’ And the Dutch borrowed that word either directly or indirectly from a Chinese language called Min or Hokkien which pronounced it something like tê.

The Dutch introduced most of the Western World to tea so you can see cognates with the Dutch word thee in the French thé, German Tee, and Spanish té. And of course, each of these languages lent their own version of tea to other languages.

	Loans from French
Italian	tè
Armenian	tʻey
Haitian Creole	te
Seychelles Creole	dite
Ojibwe	nitii

These words however, make up just one side of the story. Because like coffee, there are two broad categories of where languages get their word for tea from. Many get it a from word that sounds something like tê and many get it from a word that sounds something like cha. And these two terms for tea (mostly like) come from the same proto-word.

This has made a funny split in the worlds languages between those that pronounce it with ’t’ an those that have a ‘ch’ sound at the beginning. I’ve even heard the joke ‘cha if by land and tea if by sea’ poking fun at the way the name of the drink is pretty similar and easy to track depending on how the word came into a languages.

This cha-form is used by languages like Mandarin chá and Cantonese with caa. Words derived from cha were often borrowed along different over-land trade routes like the Silk Road. As such there are cha-forms in most languages in Central Asia, the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East.

And naturally there have been further splits along the way. Persian borrowed the word from a ‘ch’ language and spread it to languages like Arabic and Turkish. In Arabic, the ch-sound became a sh sound and so the word is šāy, which was then borrowed further into languages like Hausa (shāyì) and Amharic (šay). And the Turkish word çay (with the initial ch-sound) was further borrowed into most Slavic languages so Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian all have the word čaj.

	Loans from Persian
Arabic	šāy
Hindi	cāy
Pashto	čây
Pujabi	cāh

As a result, the name for tea is quite similar in languages across the world…if you know what you’re looking at since it might not be immediately obvious that words like tii and šay have a connection.

There are also some language where the words for tea got some extra attachments. In Polish, the tea-term came from either the New Latin construction herba thea or the Dutch herba thee, which came from Dutch thee from Malay teh, etc. Eventually this herba thea fused into one word and the Polish word herbata was born which is still widely used to this day.

And of course, herbata lent itself to lot of other nearby languages like Lithuanian, Belarusian, Ukrainian and Kashubian.

Language	tea’	Notes
Belarusian	harbata	čaj also used
Kashubian	arbata
Lithuanian	arbata
Ukrainian	herbata	herbata is primarily used in the West of Ukraine while čaj is the ‘default’ term in standard Ukrainian

In a similar vein, the word for tea in several creole languages come from the partitive phrase du thé meaning ‘some tea.

Language	tea’	Notes
Louisiana Creole	dité
Sango	dutëe	sái also used
Seychelles Creole, Seselwa	dite
St. Lucian Creole	dité

And none of this even mentions language which have both tê and cha cognates or multiple cognates. The English word tea a tê-derived word but consider terms like matcha, cha, char and chawan. Likewise, in languages like Japanese, Korean, and Russian the words for tea are cha-based, but you can find words that use tê derivations like aisutī in Japanese for ‘iced tea’ and babl-ti in Russian for ‘bubble tea.’

Language	Basic Word for Tea	Cha-Derived Term	Meaning
English	tea	chai	chai tea, chai masala
French	thé	chai	chai tea, chai masala
Dutch	thee	chai	chai tea, chai masala
Italian	tè	chai	chai tea, chai masala
Polish	herbata	czajnik	tea pot

Language	Basic Word for Tea	Tê-Derived Term	Meaning
Arabic	šāy	āys tī	iced tea
Japanese	cha, o-cha	aisutī	iced tea
Korean	cha	aiseuti	iced tea
		beobuelti	bubble tea
Russian	čaj	babl-ti	bubble tea

And of course, there are terms like ‘chai tea’ which is made up of both the tê and cha derivations.

Coffee and Tea Parallels

The widespread cognates of coffee and tea have a lot of parallels with each other. They both have two broad forms that aren’t obviously related at a first glance. They both have specific forms that were extensively spread by the Dutch - thee and koffie. And they both have homelands where you can find quite some languages that don’t use the cognate term to refer to the drink. The Horn of Africa for coffee and Southern China/the Golden Triangle area for tea.

What Languages Don’t Have Cognates for Coffee and Tea

Some linguistic areas have words that are totally unrelated to either cha/tê or coffee/kawa and their many descendants. 

In Southeast Asia, languages like Burmese, Shan, Kachin and Nuoso have words for tea that are separate from the normal trend and derived from a proto-word that’s something like *lap. 

Pockets of languages indigenous to Northern Australia have words for tea that come from local terms for plant-life. And some North American languages also have built instead of borrowed a word, such as the Comanche term puhihuba meaning ‘bitter leaf.’

Language	tea'	region	notes
S’gaw Karen	la pa ti	Southeast Asia
Burmese	lăhpetye	Southeast Asia
Mon	daik.lə.pʰɛk	Southeast Asia
Red Karen	ni lɛ	Southeast Asia
Comanche	puhihuba	Southern Plains, North America	meaning ‘bitter plant’
Fox	mashishkiwâpowi	Southern Plains, North America	from a word meaning ‘medicine'
Southern Sámi	löövje		from a word meaning ‘leaf’

Languages without apparent cognates with coffee have a more disconnected geographic range.

Language	‘coffee’	notes
LuBukusu	eemwaani
Arapaho	woo'teenoowu'	from the word for black
Lakota	wak’alyapi, wakhalyapi
Ngizim	shāyì	from the word for tea
South Sami	prihtjege

There is, however, an area around the horn of Africa where the word for coffee is some cognate of bun. It’s worth mentioning that once we include cognates with the term café (which comes from the same root) we can include some languages, like Tigrinya and Amharic, among languages with a coffee-cognate.

	word for coffee	word for cafe
Afar	buun, buna
Amharic	buna	kafe
Tigrinya	bun	kafä
Somali	bun, qahwe	kafeega

So what’s the most borrowed word?

Long story short, I don’t know and it needs more research.

Long story long…it’s time to talk about research methods, aka how I found all these words.

If you don’t know, there’s a website called Wiktionary which essentially acts as a giant interconnected multilingual dictionary. On the plus side, you can do all sorts of cool things like look up etymologies, compare cognates and very importantly to me see a quick overview of many different translations of a word. In fact, a lot of my initial ideas for this project came from looking at Wiktionary pages. On the minus side, it’s maintained, operated and edited by users, which means that it’s a really good resource for some languages (Why is Finnish so wildly over-represented on Wiktionary?), a really good jumping off point for other languages and a big question mark for others. Sometimes users leave sources or links….and most often they don’t.

There are some very questionable entries on Wiktionary. It lists the Hmong word for pizza as pis xam. It lists the Herero word for coffee as ozo-mbonde. In both cases I could not find anything to support either of these words and found the word okosiva as the word for coffee in Herero. In fact, I mostly found lots of so-called dictionary and language-focused websites that had clearly just done a data-scrape from Wiktionary.

That being said, it was mostly correct and a great jumping off point for a lot of words or to get a better understanding of certain things.

So back to coffee and tea. Taking into account the 200-something languages I looked at coffee is more widely borrowed…but not by a large margin. And that also discounts quite a lot of languages listed on Wiktionary. According to the site there are about 225 languages that have cognates with tê/cha/tea and about 315 that have cognates with caffè/qahwa/coffee. So if you’re just looking at Wiktionary then the most borrowed word is coffee. But several languages I looked weren’t on either list. Not to mention that Wiktionary divides languages slightly differently than I’ve been doing.

So if you look somewhere else, you get different insights. A lot of different forums, sites and data-bases firmly claim that the most borrowed word is ‘tea.’ In fact, WALS (the World Atlas of Linguistic Structures) has a feature dedicated to showing different words for tea across languages. And for context WALS usually only maps linguistic structures, not the borrowing of  specific lexemes so this is quite a statement.

And if you look at WALS then you get 194 cognate terms - 110 related to cha and 84 related to tê. It also lists 36 languages where the word for tea come from ‘Other’ which actually…well, actually it’s wrong.

The Hawaiian kī is part of the common change of t > k in borrowings. The Zulu itiye is clearly a borrowing from English ‘tea.’ The Lao nam sa meaning has nam meaning liquid and the sa part which is cha after a quite regular sound change (Lan Xang - Chang#). The Objibwe term aniibiish is made from native roots but there’s also the word nitii which is less commonly used but it does exist. And there are others but you get the idea.

More research was needed…..

So I took the 200+ words I already had and added to that the data from WALS and Wiktionary (after vetting most of the entries). Then for any instance where I had only the term for coffee or tea, I looked for the other. For several languages, where no cognate was found, I broadened the search to include other terms like ‘tea pot’ and ‘cafe.’ And this gave me a broader view of the tea and coffee-cognate situation.

The majority of languages had a cognate term for both coffee and tea.

Some languages are the Horn of Africa had a cognate term for tea but the words for coffee were related to bun. Of these, some had a words for café that were cognate with coffee.

Several Chadic languages had the same word for tea and coffee that was cognate with Arabic šay. The distinction could come from context or a color term.

Bade	Afro-Asiatic, Chadic	sāyín (Western),  sāyì (Gashua)	sāyín (Western),  sāyì (Gashua) (meaning coffee)
Bole	Afro-Asiatic, Chadic	shayì	shayi
Ngizim	Afro-Asiatic, Chadic	shāyì	shāyì

Several Lolo–Burmese had a cognate terms for coffee but not tea.

Burmese	Sino-Tibetan, Lolo–Burmese	ကော်ဖီ (kauhpi)	လက်ဖက်ရည်  (lăhpetye)
Manange	Sino-Tibetan	kophi	3tʃe
Karen, S'gaw Karen	Sino-Tibetan, Karenic	kaw pèe	la pa ti
Red Karen, Kayah Li	Sino-Tibetan, Karenic	/ka˨pʰi˨/;	/ni˧lɛ˨/
Pela, Bola	Sino-Tibetan, Lolo–Burmese		faʔ⁵⁵ kʰjɛʔ⁵⁵
Nuosu	Sino-Tibetan, Loloish		ꆿꒉ (lat yy)
Lolopo	Sino-Tibetan, Loloish		lor (Yao'an Lolo)
Rawang	Sino-Tibetan, Nungic	gopi	shvpaqn (Chinese green tea - 'leaf' + 'astringent') paqkán (tea (plain tea).'astringent' + 'bitter')

Most Siouan languages didn’t have cognates for tea or coffee.

Dakota	Siouan	mni k’ata,  pežuta sapa	wahpe
Kansa	Siouan	mokáⁿ sábe	maⁿhíⁿni
Lakota	Siouan	pejula sapa	non cog
Osage	Siouan	mąhkása	hpéženíi,  hpéže mąhká
Quapaw	Siouan	ma-kaⁿ sha (black medicine)	ma-hiⁿ (mahį́) - grass; ni (ni) - liquid

There were also a lot of unknowns or inconclusive questions about cognate-ness because many dictionaries simply just don’t include to term. In the World Atlas of Linguistic Structures, Dahl mentions this explicitly for tea, saying

“Many dictionaries, especially of languages spoken outside the major tea-consuming countries, do not list any word for ‘tea’. It is in general impossible to determine whether this results from the dictionary being incomplete or from there being no word for ‘tea’ in the language. Probably the situation is often an intermediate one: tea is only marginal in the culture, and whenever there is need to refer to it, a word from the dominant language is used.”

As such, many dictionaries for languages spoken Central America had a word listed for coffee but not tea. And many dictionaries for languages spoken in Siberia had a word listed for tea but not coffee. And so the Limited Dictionary Problem strikes again.

In total, this resulted in data from a list of 504 languages with 449 cognates for ‘coffee’ and 419 cognates found for ‘tea’ of which 2 are probable but not entirely certain.

	coffee	tea
Languages with Cognate Terms	449	419
Languages Likely without Cognates	20	35
Languages which may have Cognate Terms	0	2
Ratio of Cognates to Found Terms	0.957	0.922

Considering Cognates

For tea to have this many cognates we do have accept that cha and tê have a common ancestor. And the thing is a lot of people, myself included, do believe that they do come from some same-same ancestor in Middle Chinese. So tii and char and shay and herbata are all related and tea is the more borrowed word in the world. But it might actually take that title even further. 

There are also edge-cased where it’s unclear if a term is a cognate or a coincidence. For example the words for tea in Hmong tshuaj yej and Lushootseed tiac.

Beyond that list of cognates might be a bit longer still. Some linguists believe the idea that this Middle Chinese word that turned into cha and tê was itself a borrowed from a Proto-Tibeto-Burman or Mon-Khmer word that would have sounded something like *la which would have meant something like ‘leaf’ or ‘tea’ or ‘tea leaf.’ This became words like Burmese laphet or Karen la pa ti. And over hundreds of years and quite some sound changes, that *la also became the Middle Chinese word and the rest is history. Of course, it’s worth noting that there’s no hard evidence for this and that *la is reconstruction but it is a well-supported idea.

What takes this to another level is that it could mean that some of those non-related words could indeed have a connection in a few languages like Burmese, Mon, and Nuosu. If that’s the case, then the difference in narrowed but coffee still comes out as the most borrowed word.

	coffee	tea
Languages with Cognate Terms, including *la	449	425
Languages Likely without Cognates	20	29
Languages which may have Cognate Terms	0	2
Ratio of Cognates to Found Terms	0.957	0.936

And as tempted as it is to say that coffee has the most cognates around the world, this was a survey of just over 500 languages. In other words, that’s less than 10% of the world’s languages. With that in mind, I feel comfortable saying tea and coffee are two of the most borrowed word in the world.Table 17.- Global Cognates for Tea and Coffee

Language	Language Family	A coffee	A tea
Tarifiyt Berber	Afro-Asiatic, Berber	řqəhwa l-qhwa	ashahi
TashlHeet	Afro-Asiatic, Berber	l-qhwa	atay
Central Atlas Tamazight	Afro-Asiatic, Berber	l-qhwa	atay
Kabyle	Afro-Asiatic, Berber	taɣlust, lqahwa	llatay
Hausa	Afro-Asiatic, Chadic	kofi,  kóofi,  kàfê,  gahawa	shayi,  ti
Lagwan	Afro-Asiatic, Chadic	gawa	shai
Bade	Afro-Asiatic, Chadic		sāyín (Western),  sāyì (Gashua) (meaning coffee)
Bole	Afro-Asiatic, Chadic		shayi
Musey	Afro-Asiatic, Chadic	kàffēnā	śaynà
Ngizim	Afro-Asiatic, Chadic		shāyì
Afar, Qafar	Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic		shaahí
Iraqw	Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic	kahwa	chay
Somali	Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic	bun, qahwe	shaah
Oromo	Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic	buna (cofee), kaaffe (café, coffeshop)	shaayii, shaayee
Burji	Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic		shahe
Alaba-Kʼabeena	Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic		šáayit
Dahalo	Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic		šaahi
Rendille	Afro-Asiatic, Kushitic
Borno (Shinasha)	Afro-Asiatic, Oromic		shááyiya
Yemsa	Afro-Asiatic, Oromic		shaayì
Hebrew	Afro-Asiatic, Semitic	qafé	te
Maltese	Afro-Asiatic, Semitic	kafè	te
Arabic	Afro-Asiatic, Semitic	qahwa	šāy
Hijazi Arabic	Afro-Asiatic, Semitic	gahwa	šāhi
Egyptian Arabic	Afro-Asiatic, Semitic	ʔahwa	šej,  čej
Moroccan Arabic	Afro-Asiatic, Semitic	qahwa, qûhwa	ʔatāy,  tāy
Amharic	Afro-Asiatic, Semitic	buna 'coffee' kafe (café)	ሻይ (šay)
Tigrinya	Afro-Asiatic, Semitic	bun (coffee) kafä (café)	ሻሂ (šahi)
Ainu	Ainuic		チャ (ca),  チャー (caa),  ウセイ (úsey)
Arapaho	Algic, Algonquian
Cheyenne	Algic, Algonquian
Fox	Algic, Algonquian	kâhpîhi,  mahkatêwâpowi
Mi'kmaq	Algic, Algonquian	wikunapu, kaffi (less common)
Abenaki	Algic, Algonquian	kapay	ti
Unami	Algic, Algonquian	kàpi	ti
Cree	Algic, Algoquian		tiy, nihtiy, lite
Ojibwe	Algic, Algoquian	gaapii	nitii, aniibiish
Mapudungun/ Mapuche	Araucanian	kafe, café	te
Garifuna	Arawakan	gafe	bachati
Wayuu, Wayuunaiki, Guajiro	Arawakan	kepein, kojee
Arawak, Lokono	Arawakan	kofi
Machiguenga	Arawakan, Campa	kaju
Chrau	Austro-Asiatic, Bahnaric		trà
Wa	Austroasiatic, Khasi–Palaungic	ka feui (kha: feue:)	chax (cha')
Khasi	Austroasiatic, Khasi–Palaungic	kophi	sha
Khmer	Austroasiatic, Khmer	កាហ្វេ (kahvé)	ទឹកតែ (tɨk tae) តែ (tae)
Mon	Austroasiatic, Monic	kɔˀphi,  kɔˀfi, kaphi
Santali	Austroasiatic, Munda	kôphi	ca, cha
Vietnamese	Austroasiatic, Vietic	cà phê	trà,  chè
Muong, Mường	Austroasiatic, Vietic	cà phê	chè
Tîrî	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian		tee
Ceq Wong	Austronesian, Aslian	tam kopi	tam têh
Chru	Austronesian, Chamic		che
Cham	Austronesian, Chamic	kaphé, kophi	ce, caiy (East)
Bahasa Indonesia	Austronesian, Malayic	kopi	teh
Bahasa Melayu	Austronesian, Malayic	kopi	teh
Brunei Malay	Austronesian, Malayic	kupi	teh
Medan, Bahasa Medan	Austronesian, Malayic	kopi	teh
Lampung	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	kahwa,  kupi	te,  tih
Acehnese	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	kupi	tè
Malagasay	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	kafe	dite
Sundanese	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	kopi	entéh
Basa Bali	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	kopi	téh
Javanese	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	kopi	tèh
Tetum	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	kafé	xá
Mentawai	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	kopi	teh
Madurese, Madoerees	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	kopi, kupi	ētte
Chamorro	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	kafé	cha, chå
Palauan	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	kohi	tii
Chamorro	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	café	cha
Kulawi, Moma	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	kopi	teh, te
Madurese	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	kopi, kupi	ētte
Inabaknon, Abaknon	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	kapi
Kei, Bahasa, Kei	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	kuf	teng
Tausug	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	kahawa	tī
Wolio	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	kahawa	tee
Kusaiean / Kosraean	Austronesian, Micronesian	kohfi	tii
Pingelap(ese)	Austronesian, Micronesian	koahpi	dite
Gilbertese, Kiribati	Austronesian, Micronesian	koobe	te ti, te i
Pohnpeian	Austronesian, Micronesian	koahpi	dih
Fijian	Austronesian, Oceanic	kofe, kofi	ti
Samoan	Austronesian, Oceanic	kofe	tī, lautī
Hawaiian	Austronesian, Oceanic	kope	kī, wai kī (tea leaf)
Hiri Motu	Austronesian, Oceanic	kopi	ti
Takia	Austronesian, Oceanic	kofi	ti
Nyelâyu	Austronesian, Oceanic	kape (Belep dialect)	te
Takia	Austronesian, Oceanic	kofi	ti
Marshallese	Austronesian, Oceanic	kope, kobe, ko̧pe	ti,  tibat (teapot)
Maori	Austronesian, Oceanic	kawhe, kawhi	tī
Tongan	Austronesian, Oceanic	kofi	tī
Lote	Austronesian, Oceanic	kopi	ti
Rarotongan, Cook Islands Māori	Austronesian, Oceanic	kaope
Tahitian	Austronesian, Oceanic	taofe	ti
Ilocano	Austronesian, Phillippine	kape agkape (to drink coffee)	tsa
Bikol	Austronesian, Phillippine	kape, kapé	tsa
Tagalog	Austronesian, Phillippine	kape	tsaa,  tsa
Cebuano/ Bisaya	Austronesian, Phillippine	kape	tsá
Waray-Waray	Austronesian, Phillippine	kapé, kapetéra (coffee pot)	tsa, tetéra (tea pot)
Gorontalo	Austronesian, Phillippine	kopi	teyi
Hiligaynon/ Ilongo	Austronesian, Phillippine	kape	tsa
Ivatan	Austronesian, Phillippine	kapi	cha
Kapampangan	Austronesian, Phillippine	kapi,  kape	ca,  tsa
Maguindanao	Austronesian, Phillippine	kahawa,  kapi	ti
Maranao	Austronesian, Phillippine	kahawa	sa
Pangasinan	Austronesian, Phillippine	kape	tsaa
Futunan, East Futunan	Austronesian, Polynesian	kafe	tī
Niuean	Austronesian, Polynesian	kofe
Tuvaluan	Austronesian, Polynesian	kofe	ti
Wallisian	Austronesian, Polynesian	kafē	tī,  shaï
Aymara	Aymaran	kaphiya
Kali'na/Carib	Cariban	kafé
Panare	Cariban	kope
Wayana	Cariban	kape
Arhuaco, Ikʉ	Chibchan	kafe
Kuna	Chibchan, Guna–Colombian	kabi
Koryat	Chukotko-Kamchatkan	кофе (kofe)	чай (čaj)
Tok Pisin	Creole	kopi	ti
Bislama	Creole	kofi,  kofe	ti
Sranan Tongo	Creole	kofi	te
Saramaccan	Creole	kofí,  kofi	té
Papiamentu	Creole	kòfi	té
Haitian Creole	Creole	kafe	te
Kriol (Belize)	Creole	kaafi	tee
Pijin (Solomon Islands)	Creole	kofi	ti, kapti
Kriol (Austraila)	Creole	kofi	ti, di, tilib (tea leaf)
Seychelles Creole, Seselwa	Creole	kafe	dite
Krio	Creole	kɔfi	ti
Sango	Creole	kâfe, kâwa	sái, dutëe
Kituba (Munukutuba)	Creole	kafe bàkàfé (pl.)	te
Arabi Juba	Creole	gawa,  gahwa	shai
Betawi	Creole	gahwa,  kupi	té,  sahi
Kabuverdianu	Creole	kafé	xa
Aukan, Ndyuka	Creole	kofi	te, faya wata
Louisiana Creole	Creole	kafé	dité
Kwéyòl, St. Lucian Creole	Creole	kafe	dité
Tamil	Dravidian, South	காபி (kāpi)	தேநீர் (tēnīr) டீ (ṭī)
Kannada	Dravidian, South	ಕಾಫಿ (kāphi)	ಚಹಾ (cahā),  ಟೀ (ṭī)
Malayalam	Dravidian, South	കാപ്പി (kāppi)	ചായ (cāya)
Badaga	Dravidian, South	ka:pi, koffa (older) koffe (older)	tī
Telugu	Dravidian, South-Central	kāphī	తేనీరు (tēnīru) (same as Tamil) టీ (ṭī)
Aleut	Eskaleut, Aleut	kuufya	chaayuх̑
Greenlandic/ Kalaallisut	Eskaleut, Inuit	kaffi	tii
Inuktitut	Eskaleut, Inuit	kaapi kâfik (Inuttut dialect)	tii
Inupiaq, Inupiat	Eskaleut, Inuit	kuukpiaq,  kuuppiaq,  kaapi,  kaavi	saiyu,  tii
Yup'ik	Eskaleut, Yupik	kuuvviaq kuuvviar (to drink coffee)	caayuq, saayuq
Alutiiq	Eskaleut, Yupik	kugiaq, kuuggiaq	cayuq
Kadiwéu	Guaicuruan	gaape, gaafi
White Hmong	Hmong-Mien	kas fes, kav fes	tshuaj yej
Green Hmong	Hmong-Mien, Hmongic	kas fes
Achumawi	Hokan (proposed)	kʰóópʰi
Seri	Hokan (proposed)	cafee,  xica coopol
Albanian	Indo-European, Albanoid	kafe	çaj
Armenian	Indo-European, Armenian	կոֆե (kofe) (colloquial) սուրճ (surč) (standard)	թեյ (tʻey)
Lithuanian	Indo-European, Baltic	kava	arbata
Latvian	Indo-European, Baltic	kafija	tēja
Latgalian	Indo-European, Baltic	kopejs	čajs
Samogitian	Indo-European, Baltic	kava	erbeta
Welsh	Indo-European, Celtic	coffi	te
Breton	Indo-European, Celtic	kafe	te
Cornish	Indo-European, Celtic	koffi	te
Irish	Indo-European, Celtic	caife	tae
Manx	Indo-European, Celtic	caffee	tey
Scottish Gaelic	Indo-European, Celtic	cofaidh	tì
German	Indo-European, Germanic	der Kaffee	der Tee
Swedish	Indo-European, Germanic	kaffe	te
Norwegian	Indo-European, Germanic	kaffe,  kaffi	te
Danish	Indo-European, Germanic	kaffe	te, the (old spelling)
Icelandic	Indo-European, Germanic	kaffi	te
Dutch	Indo-European, Germanic	de koffie	thee
Afrikaans	Indo-European, Germanic	koffie	tee
Alemannic German	Indo-European, Germanic	Kàffe	Tee
Bavarian	Indo-European, Germanic	Kafää	Tää
Elfdalian	Indo-European, Germanic	kaffi	te
Faroese	Indo-European, Germanic	kaffi	te
Hunsrik	Indo-European, Germanic	Kaffi	Scha
Ligurian	Indo-European, Germanic	caffè,  cafè (Genoese)	tê
Limburgish	Indo-European, Germanic	koffie	thee
Luxembourgish	Indo-European, Germanic	Kaffi	Téi
Mòcheno	Indo-European, Germanic	kafè	tè
North Frisian	Indo-European, Germanic	kofe (Amrum),  kofe (Föhr),  koftje (Halligen),  Kofi (Sylt)	tee, Tee
Pennsylvania German	Indo-European, Germanic	Kaffi	tay
Plautdietsch	Indo-European, Germanic	Koffe (Germany) koffie, kovvie (Netherlands) kufje (Borkum),  koffii (Harlingerland, Jeverland),  koffee (Spiekeroog)	Tee
Romansch	Indo-European, Germanic	café	te, tè, té
Saterland Frisian	Indo-European, Germanic	Koafje	Tee
Scots	Indo-European, Germanic	coffee	tea
Vilamovian	Indo-European, Germanic		tyy
West Flemish	Indo-European, Germanic	kaffie,  kafje	thee
West Frisian	Indo-European, Germanic	kofje	tee
Yiddish	Indo-European, Germanic	kave	tey
Greek	Indo-European, Hellenic	καφές (kafés)	τσάι (tsái)
Tajik	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	қаҳва (qahva)	чой (čoj)
Persian/Farsi	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	qahwa,  kāwá,  kāfí	čāy (Dari) čây (Iranian Persian)
Pashto	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	qahwa,  kāwa	čāy, čay
Hindi	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	कॉफ़ी (kŏfī),  क़हवा (qahvā),  कोफ़ी (kofī),  काफ़ी (kāfī)	चाय (cāy)
Bengali	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	কফি (kophi)	চা (ca)
Gujarati	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	કૉફી (kŏphī),  કહવા (kahvā)	ચા (cā)
Nepali	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	kaphī	चिया (ciyā)
Punjabi	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	ਕਾਫੀ (kāphī)	ਚਾਹ (cāh)
Marathi	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	कॉफी (kŏphī)	चहा (cahā)
Sinhalese	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	කෝපි (kōpi) කෝපි (kōpi)	තේ (tē),  තෝ (tō)
Assamese	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	কফি (kophi)	চাহ (sah),  ফালাপ (phalap)
Ossetian	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	къофи (k’ofi),  хъауа (qawa)	цай (caj)
Zazaki	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	qahwe	çay
Dhivēhī	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	kofee, gahuva, bun (beans)	sai
Fiji Hindi	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	kofi,  kofe	cha
Gojri	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	qahwo (tea without milk, black tea)	chaah (tea leaves, clear tea)
Kalasha	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan		čay
Kurdish	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	qawe (Central Kurdish) qehwe, qawe (Northern Kurdish)	çay, ça (Central Kurdish) ça, çay (Northern Kurdish)
Odia	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	କଫୀ (kaphi)	ଚା (cā)
Rohingya	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	kofí	saá
Romani	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	kàfa (Vlax),  kafàva (less common)	čàjo (Vlax)
Sarnami	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	kofi	tjaah, caah
Sindhi	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	qahivo	čānhi, čāhe
Urdu	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	kāfī, kofī, qahva	cāe
Western Panjabi	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	qhoh, kāfī	cāh
Kashmiri	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	kahwa	cayi,  cahi
Sylheti	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	kofi	sa,  sah, cha
Baluchi	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	káwa, qahwa	cháhi
Spanish	Indo-European, Italic	el café	el té
French	Indo-European, Italic	le café	le thé
Portuguese	Indo-European, Italic	o café	chá
Catalan	Indo-European, Italic	cafè	te
Romanian	Indo-European, Italic	cafea	ceai
Italian	Indo-European, Italic	il caffè	il tè
Corsican	Indo-European, Italic	caffè	tè
Extramaduran	Indo-European, Italic	café	te,  ten
Friulian	Indo-European, Italic	cafè	tè
Galician	Indo-European, Italic	café	té
Ladin	Indo-European, Italic	cafè	tê
Ladino	Indo-European, Italic	kavé, kafé	chay
Lombard	Indo-European, Italic	café, cafè	tè
Mirandese	Indo-European, Italic	café	xá
Neapolitan	Indo-European, Italic	cafè	tè
Norman	Indo-European, Italic	café	thée (Jersey, Guernsey)
Occitan	Indo-European, Italic	cafè	tè
Piedmontese	Indo-European, Italic	cafè	té
Sardinian	Indo-European, Italic	caffei, caffeu (Campidanese) caffei, caffè (Logudorese) caffè (Sassarese)	tè
Sicilian	Indo-European, Italic	cafè	te
Venetan	Indo-European, Italic	cafè	tè
Walloon	Indo-European, Italic	cafè	té
Aragonese	Indo-European, Italic	café	te
Aromanian	Indo-European, Italic	cafe	tea
Asturian	Indo-European, Italic	café	té
Bulgarian	Indo-European, Slavic	кафе (kafe)	чай (čaj)
Serbo-Croatian	Indo-European, Slavic	кафа - kafa,  кава - kava	чај - čaj
Ukrainian	Indo-European, Slavic	кава (kava)	чай (čaj)
Belarusian	Indo-European, Slavic	кава (kava)	чай (čaj) гербата (herbata)
Russian	Indo-European, Slavic	кофе (kofe)	чай (čaj)
Slovak	Indo-European, Slavic	káva	čaj
Czech	Indo-European, Slavic	káva	čaj
Polish	Indo-European, Slavic	kawa	herbata
Rusyn (Carpathian)	Indo-European, Slavic	ка́ва (káva),  ка́виль (kávylʹ)	чай (čaj),  тей (tej)
Kashubian	Indo-European, Slavic	kawa	arbata
Konkani	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	कापि (kāpi) ಕಾಫಿ (kāpi) kofi	चा (cā),  ಚಾ (cā),  ചാ (cā)
Macedonian	Indo-European, Slavic	кафе (kafe)	чај (čaj)
Rusyn (Panonian)	Indo-European, Slavic	кафа (kafa)	тея (teja),  чай (čaj)
Silesian	Indo-European, Slavic	kafej,  kafyj	tyj
Slovene	Indo-European, Slavic	káva	čaj
Sorbian	Indo-European, Slavic	Lower: kafej  Upper: kofej	Lower: tej, čaj (literary) Upper: čaj
Cherokee	Iroquoian	ᎧᏫ (kawi)
Tuscarora	Iroquoian	káhwih
Basque	Isolate	kafe	te
Tikuna/ Ticuna	Isolate	cape	te
Aikanã	Isolate	ka'pe
Burushaski	Isolate	kofi	ćai
Movima	Isolate	ka:pe
Nivkh	Isolate		ча (ț’a)
Purépecha, Pʼurhépecha	Isolate	kafe
Tiwi	Isolate		tuniwuni (tea leaf) tilipi (tea leaf) malarri (tea leaf) manguluwuni (tea drink)
Tunica	Isolate	kafi
Iwardja	Iwaidjan
Japanese	Japonic	コーヒー (kōhī)	茶 (ちゃ, cha),  お茶 (おちゃ, o-cha)
Yonaguni	Japonic, Ryukyuan		サー (saː)
Krongo	Kadu		sháày
Georgian	Kartvelian	ყავა (q̇ava)	ჩაი (čai)
Mingrelian	Kartvelian	ყავა (q̇ava)	ჩაი (čai)
KhoeKhoe	Khoe-Kwadi	kofi-i  (borrowed from Afrikaans)	tēb, tē-i (borrowed from Afrikaans)
Korean	Koreanic	커피 (keopi)	차 (cha)
Jeju	Koreanic	커피 (keopi)	차 (cha)
Bouyei	Kra-Dai, Tai		xaz
Northern Thai, Kam Mueang	Kra-Dai, Tai	gǎa-fɛ́ɛ	cha
Thai	Kra-Dai/Tai-Kadai, Tai	กาแฟ (gaa-fɛɛ)	ชา (chaa),  น้ำชา (náam-chaa)
Lao	Kra-Dai/Tai-Kadai, Tai	ກາເຟ (kā fē)	ຊາ (sā),  ນ້ຳຊາ (nam sā)
Shan	Kra-Dai/Tai-Kadai, Tai	kaa2 pʰi2 ka:2 phi:2
Lü/Tai Lue	Kra-Dai/Tai-Kadai, Tai	xaa1foey1 / xaa⁵fɤj⁵	(nam²)tsaa, (nam²)saa²
Zhuang	Kra-Dai/Tai-Kadai, Tai	gahfeih gyahfeih	caz
Nung, Nùng	Kra-Dai/Tai-Kadai, Tai		sa
Ju|'hoan	Kxa, Kx'a		tíi
Wichí	Matacoan	kafwe	te, kusilu
Ch'orti'	Mayan, Cholan–Tzeltalan	kahwe
Ch'ol	Mayan, Cholan–Tzeltalan	cajpe'
Tzotzil	Mayan, Cholan–Tzeltalan	kajve
K'iche'	Mayan, Kichean	kapeh
Chuj	Mayan, Q'anjobalan-Chujean	kapeh
Yucatec Maya	Mayan, Yucatecan	káapej
Wambaya	Mirndi
Mixe (Isthmus)	Mixe-Zoque, Mixean	cajueey (Guichicovi)
Mixe (Totontepec)	Mixe-Zoque, Mixean	café
Zoque	Mixe-Zoquian (Mexico)	cajwe (Copainalá Zoque) kajwel (Rayón Zoque)
Mongolian	Mongolic	кофе (kofe)	цай (caj)
Buryat	Mongolic	кофе (kofje)	сай (saj)
Kalmyk (Oirat)	Mongolic	кофе (kofe)	цә (tsä)
Muscogee	Muskogean, East	kafe
Alabama	Muskogean, East	kafi	tiika
Choctaw	Muskogean, West	kʋfi	ti
Chickasaw	Muskogean, West	kuffi	tii'
Tlingit	Na-Dené	káaxwei,  káxwei	chááyu
Navajo	Na-Dené, Athabaskan	gohwééh ahwééh	ch'il ahwééh dééh (less common)
Chipewyan	Na-Dené, Athabaskan	lígafí	lidí
Hupa	Na-Dené, Athabaskan	ka:whe, ta’na:n-łiwhin
Apache	Na-Dené, Athabaskan	gaʼée (Jicarilla) tudiłhiłi (Western)	dééh (Jicarilla)
Ahtna	Na-Dené, Athabaskan	guuxi, guuxe’	eldiil
Hup	Naduhup	kapé
Dagaare	Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo	kofi	ti(i)
Diola-Fogny	Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo		te
isiXhosa	Niger-Congo, Bantu	ikofu	iti
isiZulu	Niger-Congo, Bantu	ikhofi	itiye
Ndebele (Southern)	Niger-Congo, Bantu	ikhofi	itiye
KiKongo	Niger-Congo, Bantu	káfé	tii
Lingala	Niger-Congo, Bantu	kafé,  kafi, káwa	ti
SeSotho	Niger-Congo, Bantu	kofi	tee, teye
ChiChewa	Niger-Congo, Bantu	khofi,  kofi, khóofií	tiyi, thíiyi
ChiShona	Niger-Congo, Bantu	kofi, khofi	tii
Kirundi	Niger-Congo, Bantu	ikawa (drink) aga-hawa (grain, tree)	icāyi
Kinyarwanda	Niger-Congo, Bantu	ikawa	icyayi
Swahili	Niger-Congo, Bantu	kahawa	chai
Duala	Niger-Congo, Bantu	kafe	tī
Wanga (Luhya)	Niger-Congo, Bantu	ikahawa	ichai
ChiBemba, IchiBemba ChiWemba	Niger-Congo, Bantu	kofi	tii, chai, amakabe
Chizigula	Niger-Congo, Bantu	gahawa	shayi
UwuLamba	Niger-Congo, Bantu	ikofi	tī, watī (pl)
Luganda	Niger-Congo, Bantu	emwaanyi,  kaawa	caayi
Shikomori	Niger-Congo, Bantu	kafe, kahawa (Ngazidja Comorian) buni (Maore)	cai
Kikuyu	Niger-Congo, Bantu	kahuwa	cai
SeTswana	Niger-Congo, Bantu	kofi	tee
Sepedi, Northern Sotho	Niger-Congo, Bantu	kofi	teye
SiSwati	Niger-Congo, Bantu	likhofi	litiya
Yangben, Central Yambasa	Niger-Congo, Bantu	kòfì
ChiDigo	Niger-Congo, Bantu	kahawa	chai
Lugungu	Niger-Congo, Bantu	kaahwa	caai
Ewondo	Niger-Congo, Bantu	kòfí	tii
Msaba (Bukusu)	Niger-Congo, Bantu	eemwaani	ééchai
Fang	Niger-Congo, Bantu	kofe, kafe
Herero	Niger-Congo, Bantu		otee
Kimbundu	Niger-Congo, Bantu	kafé	xa
Kwanyama (Ovambo)	Niger-Congo, Bantu	okofi	otee
Lozi (SiLozi)	Niger-Congo, Bantu	kofi	tee, tii
ChiLuba, Luba-Kasai	Niger-Congo, Bantu	kàfê	cyayì
Ovambo (Ndonga)	Niger-Congo, Bantu	okoofi	otee
Nyole	Niger-Congo, Bantu	kaawa	caayi
Ikisizaaki	Niger-Congo, Bantu	ikahawa	ichahi
Tumbuka, ChiTumbuka	Niger-Congo, Bantu		tiyi
Mandinka	Niger-Congo, Mande	kafee	tii
Bambara	Niger-Congo, Mande	kafe	te, dute, atayi
Soninke	Niger-Congo, Mande	kefe	attaaye
Wolof	Niger-Congo, Senegambian	kafe	àttaaya
Fula	Niger-Congo, Senegambian	kofi ka	ti (Firdu)
Yoruba	Niger-Congo, Volta-Congo	kofi	tíì
Mooré, Mossi, More	Niger-Congo, Volta-Congo	kafe	tee
Igbo	Niger-Congo, Volta-Congo	kọfị̀	tii, tii ketulu
Lumun	Niger–Congo, Atlantic–Congo		accáɪ
Zaghawa	Nihilo-Saharan		shay
Mbay	Nihilo-Saharan	kàpē	sáӯ
Jur Mödö	Nihilo-Saharan		sayi
Zarma	Nihilo-Saharan	kafe	attayi
Daza(ga)	Nihilo-Saharan	gawa	šai
Dholuo (Luo group)	Nihilo-Saharan	kahawa	cai
Acholi (Luo group)	Nihilo-Saharan	gawa	caái
Bari	Nihilo-Saharan	gawa	sayı
Dinka	Nilo-Saharan		cai
Madi, Ma'di	Nilo-Saharan	gáwà, káwà	cáì, sáì
Kanuri	Nilo-Saharan	kófì, kàfê (Manga)	tî sháyì (Manga)
Zarma	Nilo-Saharan	kafe	attayi
Rotokas	North Bougainville	koopi
Lak	Northeast Caucasian	ккупи (k:upi)	чяй
Avar	Northeast Caucasian, Avar-Andic	къагьва (qxʼahʷa),  кофе (kofe)	чай (čaj)
Dargwa	Northeast Caucasian, Dargin	кофе (kofe)	чай (čaj)
Archi	Northeast Caucasian, Lezgic	kope	čij
Tabasaran	Northeast Caucasian, Lezgic	кофе (kofe),  къегьва (q̄ehva),  къягьва (q̄jahva)	чай
Lezgi	Northeast Caucasian, Lezgic	кофе (kofe),  къагьве (q̄ahve)	чай (čaj)
Bats	Northeast Caucasian, Nakh	ყავ (q̇av)	čaj
Chechen	Northeast Caucasian, Nakh	кофе (kofe) q'akho, къахьо (qʼaḥʳo)	чай (čaj)
Ingush	Northeast Caucasian, Nakh	кофи (kofi)	чай (čaj)
Bezhta	Northeast Caucasian, Tsezic	kope	čay
Hinuq, Hinukh	Northeast Caucasian, Tsezic	kópe	čaynik' (teapot)
Abkhaz	Northwest Caucasian, Abaza-Abkhaz	акаҳуа (akʼaḥwa)	ачаи (ačaj)
Abaza	Northwest Caucasian, Abaza-Abkhaz	ко́фе (kófe)	чай (ćaj)
Adyghe	Northwest Caucasian, Circassian	коф (kʷof)	щай (śaj) щайус (śajus)
Kabardian	Northwest Caucasian, Circassian	къэхьэуэ (qɛḥɛwɛ)	шай (šaj)
Chinantec	Oto-Manguean, Chinatecan	café (Lealao) café (San Pedro Ozumacín) café (Tlatepuzco) jmɨ-dsɨɨ (Ozumacín)
Amuzgo	Oto-Manguean, Mixtecan	kajwê, cajwê (Guerrero) café (San Pedro)
Cuicatec	Oto-Manguean, Mixtecan	ca3fé24 (Tepeuxila)
Otomi	Oto-Manguean, Otomian	kafe, 'bothe káfe (Yųhų)
Mazatec Chiquihuitlán	Oto-Manguean, Popolocan	ca3fé24
Popoluca	Oto-Manguean, Popolocan	capel (Highland Popoluca) cafe't (Oluta Popoluca) café (Sayula Popoluca) capeel (Sierra)
Zapotec (Tlacochahuaya)	Oto-Manguean, Zapotecan	kafe
Zapotec (Jaltepec)	Oto-Manguean, Zapotecan	kapée
Zapotec (Asunción Mixtepec)	Oto-Manguean, Zapotecan	café
Zapotec (Zoogocho)	Oto-Manguean, Zapotecan	café
Zapotec (Ixtlán)	Oto-Manguean, Zapotecan	café
Zapotec (Yatzachi)	Oto-Manguean, Zapotecan	cafe
Western Desert Lanugage	Pama-Nyungan		tiiyi, anytjalka, irruwa (Pintupi-Luritja) tii, kaapati, irruwa (Pitjantjatjara) tii, kaparti (Ngaanyatjarra)
Mudburra	Pama–Nyungan, Ngumpin		diyi
Warlpirri	Pama–Nyungan, Ngumpin–Yapa
Gamilaraay	Pama–Nyungan, Wiradhuric	gabi	thii,  dhii
Maia	Papuan, Madang	kopi
Miwok	Penutian (proposed)	kape	tijy-
Quechua	Quechuan	kaphiy,  kafiy cafï (Huallaga)	tiy, q’uñi yaku
Lushootseed	Salishan	kupi	tiac
Abau	Sepik	kofi
Karen, S'gaw Karen	Sino-Tibetan, Karenic	kaw pèe
Red Karen, Kayah Li	Sino-Tibetan, Karenic	/ka˨pʰi˨/;
Burmese	Sino-Tibetan, Lolo-Burmese	ကော်ဖီ (kauhpi)
Pela, Bola	Sino-Tibetan, Lolo–Burmese
Nuosu	Sino-Tibetan, Lolo–Burmese
Lolopo	Sino-Tibetan, Lolo–Burmese
Rawang	Sino-Tibetan, Nungic	gopi
Koch	Sino-Tibetan, Sal	kofi	cha
Mandarin	Sino-Tibetan, Sinitic	咖啡 (kāfēi)	茶 (chá)
Cantonese	Sino-Tibetan, Sinitic	咖啡 (gaa3 fe1)	茶 (caa4)
Hokkien	Sino-Tibetan, Sinitic	ka-pi	tê
Hakka	Sino-Tibetan, Sinitic	kâ-pî,  kà-pî	chhà
Wu	Sino-Tibetan, Sinitic	1kha-fi	6zo
Dungan	Sino-Tibetan, Sinitic	кофе (kofi͡ə)	ца (ca)
Eastern Min	Sino-Tibetan, Sinitic	咖啡 (gă-pĭ)	茶 (dà)
Manange	Sino-Tibetan, Tamangic	kophi
DzongKha	Sino-Tibetan, Tibetic	ཀཱ༌ཕི (ka pi)	ཇ (ja)
Tibetan	Sino-Tibetan, Tibetic	ཁོ་ཕི (kho phi),  ཁ་ཕེ (kha phe),  ཇ་ཀོབ་པི (ja kob pi), (cha ka-bi)	ཇ (ja)
Sikkimese Bhutia	Sino-Tibetan, Tibetic		ཇ (cha)
Biloxi	Siouan	kafi
Dakota	Siouan
Kansa	Siouan
Lakota	Siouan
Osage	Siouan
Quapaw	Siouan
Tacana	Tacanan	kajue
Totonaco	Totonacan	kapéj
Tepehua of Huehuetla	Totonacan	capen
Totonaco	Totonacan	cafe, cape café, capé (Papantla Totonac)
Koiari	Trans-New Guinea	kofi	ti, ti haan - tea leaf
Fuyug	Trans-New Guinea	kofi	ti
Even	Tungusic, Ewenic		чай (čaj)
Evenki	Tungusic, Ewenic	кофе (kofe)	чай
Manchu	Tungusic, Jurchenic		ᠴᠠᡳ (cai)
Nanai	Tungusic, Nanaic		чаи (čai), чай (čaj)
Guaraní	Tupian, Tupi-Guarani	café,  yaku	ygua,  tery, té
Guajajára, Tenetehára	Tupian, Tupi-Guarani	kape
Nheengatu	Tupian, Tupi-Guarani	cafe	xaa,  chá
Kagwahiva, Tenharim	Tupian, Tupi-Guarani
Parakanã (Akwáwa)	Tupian, Tupí–Guaraní	kape
Uyghur	Turkic, Karluk	qehwe	chay
Uzbekh	Turkic, Karluk	qahva,  kofe	choy
Bashkir	Turkic, Kipchak	кофе (kofe) ҡәһүә (qəhwə)	сәй (səy)
Tatar	Turkic, Kipchak	каһвә (qahwä), кофе (kofe)	сәй (səy)
Kazakh	Turkic, Kipchak	кофе (kofe)	шай (şai)
Karakalpak	Turkic, Kipchak	kofe	chay
Kyrgyz	Turkic, Kipchak	кофе (kofe)	чай (čay)
Kumyk	Turkic, Kipchak	къальва (qahwa)	чай (čaj)
Crimean Tatar	Turkic, Kipchak	qave	şay,  çay
Karachay-Balkar	Turkic, Kipchak	кофе (kofe)	шай (şay)
Karaim	Turkic, Kipchak	къахъфэ (qaxfe)
Nogai	Turkic, Kipchak	кофе (kofe)	шай (šay)
Chuvash	Turkic, Oghur	кофе (kofe)	чей (čej)
Turkmen	Turkic, Oghuz	kofe	çaý
Azeri	Turkic, Oghuz	qəhvə	çay
Turkish	Turkic, Oghuz	kahve	çay
Ottoman Turkish	Turkic, Oghuz	ḳahve	čāy
Gagauz	Turkic, Oghuz	кафя (кавя), kafä (kavä)	çay
Yakut	Turkic, Siberian	кофе (kofe)	чэй (cey)
Tuvan	Turkic, Siberian	кофе (kofe)	шай (şay),  цай (tsay)
Shor	Turkic, Siberian		шай (šaj)
Tofa	Turkic, Siberian		цай (caj) шей (šej)
Altai	Turkic, Siberian	кофе	цай (cay) (Northern), чай (čay) (Southern)
Khakas	Turkic, Siberian	кофе (kofe)	чай (çay),  чей (çey)
!Xoo, Taa	Tuu	kóo-fìi, łqhūn	tîi
Estonian	Uralic, Finnic	kohv	tee
Finnish	Uralic, Finnic	kahvi	tee
Ingrian	Uralic, Finnic	kohvi	caaju,  caju
Karelian	Uralic, Finnic		čuaju
Veps	Uralic, Finnic	kofe	čai
Võro	Uralic, Finnic	kohv	tii, tsäi
Mari	Uralic, Mari	кофе (kofe) (Eastern Mari)	чай
Erzya	Uralic, Mordvinic	кохве (kohve)	цяй (ćaj)
Moksha	Uralic, Mordvinic	кофе (kofe)	чай (čaj)
Komi	Uralic, Permic	кофе (kofe)	чай (čaj)
Komi	Uralic, Permic	копей (kopej) (Permyak) кофе (kofe) (Komi-Zyrian)	чай (čaj)
Udmurt	Uralic, Permic	кофе (kofe)	чай (ćaj)
North Sami	Uralic, Sami	káffe,  gáffe	deadja
Lüüdi	Uralic, Sami	kofij	čaju
Kildin Sami	Uralic, Sami	kōfe	čajj
Inari Sami	Uralic, Sami	käähvi	teejâ,  čee
Skolt Sami	Uralic, Sami	kafˈfi	čee
Hungarian	Uralic, Ugric	kávé	tea
Mansi	Uralic, Ugric		щāй (ščāj) (Northern Lozvin) ся̄й (sâ̄j) (Northern Mansi)
Nahuatl	Uto-Aztecan, Aztecan	cafēn, kafetsin, capej (Mecayapán)
Yaqui	Uto-Aztecan, Cahita	kapee	te
Chemehuevi	Uto-Aztecan, Numic	kuupi(i)	tii
Central Tarahumara	Uto-Aztecan, Tarahumaran	cajé, kajé
Sahu	West Papuan	kopi, kofi	te
Ket	Yeniseian		sa'j
Cocopa	Yuman	kafí	ṭi'
Maricopa	Yuman	kafe